Publications

March 2014 (Revised September 2015)
Case

ACA and the Union Bank Acquisition

By: Josh Lerner and Nathaniel Burbank

Okey Enelamah is the CEO of the African Capital Alliance (ACA), a private equity firm based in Nigeria. ACA has spent more than a year arranging a $500 million consortium bid to acquire and recapitalize Union Bank, Nigeria's sixth largest bank. Several weeks before the... View Details

Keywords: Nigeria; African Capital Alliance; Africa; Bank Capital; ACA; Union Bank; Development Finance Institutions; Capital Alliance Private Equity; Private Equity; Central Banking; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; Nigeria; Africa

July 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Central Bank: The ChexSystemsSM QualiFile® Decision

By: Dennis Campbell, Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Peter Tufano and Emily McClintock

The "Central Bank" series analyzes the use of information and product design for managing the counterparty risk of newly acquired customers. Central Bank, a mid-sized regional U.S. bank, was attempting to grow its customer base by increasing the number of new checking... View Details

Keywords: Central Banking; Knowledge Management; Customer Satisfaction; Risk Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Making; Banking Industry; United States

February 2016 (Revised July 2017)
Case

Leadership and Independence at the Federal Reserve

By: David Moss and Marc Campasano

“From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the current economic crisis caused by the housing bubble, every economic downturn suffered by this country over the past century can be traced to Federal Reserve policy.” Ron Paul, a Republican from... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Central Banking; Policy; Financial Crisis; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; United States

2013
Working Paper

Did Bank Distress Stifle Innovation During the Great Depression?

By: Ramana Nanda and Tom Nicholas

We find a negative relationship between bank distress and the level, quality and trajectory of firm-level innovation during the Great Depression, particularly for R&D firms operating in capital intensive industries. However, we also show that because a sufficient... View Details

Keywords: Great Depression; R＆D; Bank Distress; Patents; Research and Development; Financial Crisis; Innovation and Invention; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

Article

Did Bank Distress Stifle Innovation During the Great Depression?

By: Ramana Nanda and Tom Nicholas

We find a negative relationship between bank distress and the level, quality, and trajectory of firm-level innovation during the Great Depression, particularly for R&D firms operating in capital intensive industries. However, we also show that because a sufficient... View Details

Keywords: Great Depression; R＆D; Bank Distress; Patents; Research and Development; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; United States

2020
Working Paper

How Should U.S. Bank Regulators Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis?

By: Michael Blank, Samuel G. Hanson, Jeremy C. Stein and Adi Sunderam

Drawing on lessons from the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and a simple conceptual framework, we examine the response of U.S. bank regulators to the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that the current regulatory strategy of “watchful waiting”—the same strategy that... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Bank Regulation; Recapitalization; Health Pandemics; Banks and Banking; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Strategy; Risk Management; United States

May 2021
Article

Fifty Shades of QE: Comparing Findings of Central Bankers and Academics

By: Brian Fabo, Marina Jančoková, Elisabeth Kempf and Ľuboš Pástor

We compare the findings of central bank researchers and academic economists regarding the macroeconomic effects of quantitative easing (QE). We find that central bank papers find QE to be more effective than academic papers do. Central bank papers report larger effects... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Easing; Career Concerns; Economic Research; Central Banking; Macroeconomics; Economic Growth

June 1987 (Revised August 1988)
Case

American Bank

By: Robert S. Kaplan

American Bank is developing a new system to compute product costs. The deregulated, more competitive environment for commercial banks has created both problems and opportunities for banking operations. In order to price existing products and assess the desirability of... View Details

Keywords: System; Consolidation; Commercial Banking; SWOT Analysis; Fair Value Accounting; Cost Management; Price; Banking Industry; North and Central America; United States

April 2012
Case

Bank of America: Mobile Banking (Abridged)

By: Sunil Gupta and Michael Norris

In January 2010, Bank of America is discussing its future mobile strategy. Should the company add complexity to its app, design multiple apps for business segments, or expand into other mobile channels? View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

2020
Working Paper

Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This study examines how community-based brick-and-mortar retailers can achieve sustained market growth in the face of online and big box retail competition. The appearance of Amazon.com in 1995 led to a significant decline in the number of independent bookstores in the... View Details

Keywords: Bookstores; Competitive Strategy; Business and Community Relations; Customization and Personalization; Growth and Development; Retail Industry; United States

March 2010
Article

The Role of Independent Invention in U.S. Technological Development, 1880-1930

By: Tom Nicholas

Why did independent inventors account for over half of US patents by 1930 and more than three times the number granted to R&D firms? Using new data on patents and historical patent citations, I show that independents supplied high quality innovations to a... View Details

Keywords: History; Technological Innovation; Patents; Urban Scope; Independent Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; United States

August 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Shenzhen Development Bank

By: Li Jin, Yuhai Xuan and Xiaobing Bai

Weijian Shan, Managing Partner of Newbridge Capital, faces a tough call in regard to his firm's investment in Shenzhen Development Bank, China's fifteenth-largest commercial bank listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Due to the aggressive lobby of the existing... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Commercial Banking; Investment; Emerging Markets; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; China

June 1991 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Second Bank of the United States: Banks and Banking Before the Second Bank of the United States

Describes the problems of early banking, early attempts at central banking, achieving a sound uniform currency, and economic growth. Illustrates the problems of developing a sound money economy in a developing country and shows the difficulties of branch management in... View Details

Keywords: Currency; Business History; Central Banking; Communication; Economic Growth; Banking Industry; United States

10 Dec 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Vulnerable Banks

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood, Augustin Landier & David Thesmar; Banking; Banking

20 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com

Click HereIndependent bookstores provide a story of hope by focusing on core values that include community, curation, and convening. (Video by Amelia Kunhardt) When Amazon.com burst onto the nascent online retail scene in 1995, the future seemed bleak for... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel (with video by Amelia Kunhardt); Retail

November 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Janet Yellen and the Bernanke Fed

By: Matthew Weinzierl and Katrina Flanagan

The unelected Federal Reserve Chairman exerts exceptional influence over the U.S., in fact global, economy. As Janet Yellen prepared to take over the position, she would look back on Chairman Bernanke's tenure during the Great Recession. During that time, Bernanke was... View Details

Keywords: Monetary Policy; Nominal Rigidity And Aggregate Demand/Aggregate Supply; Phillips Curve; Taylor Rule; Central Bank Independence; Central Banking; Money; Policy; Financial Crisis; Power and Influence; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; United States

1990
Book

Banks as Multinationals

By: G. Jones

This comparative and international study looks at the origins and business strategies of multinational banks using empirical research from the United States, Japan, Europe and Australia. The authors survey the evolution of multinational banks over time, and suggest a... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Framework; Multinational Firms and Management; Growth and Development; Surveys; Research; Business Strategy; Japan; Europe; United States; Australia

December 2004
Case

Money and Banking in America

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Stephen A. Mihm

Provides a concise overview of the critical role that money and the nation's banking system have played in the development of the U.S. economy. Tells the story of money and banking in the United States, from the earliest settlements in the colonial era through the 20th... View Details

Keywords: History; Money; Banks and Banking; United States

2014
Book

Los Buenos Tiempos Son Éstos: Los efectos de la incursión de la banca extranjera en México después de un siglo de crisis bancarias [These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System]

By: Stephen Haber and Aldo Musacchio

This book is the Spanish edition of our award winning paper "These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 18713, January 2013. The book examines the effects of foreign bank entry into Mexico. Foreign banks... View Details

Keywords: Banks And Banking; Mexico; Commercial Banking; Foreign Direct Investment; Competition; Financial Markets; Banking Industry; Mexico